CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - Monday was the 108th anniversary of Chicago’s deadliest disaster.
On July 24, 1915, about 2,500 people boarded the SS Eastland on the Chicago River, 844 of those passengers would die when the ship capsized while tied up between Clark and LaSalle.
Among the two dozen gathered on the Chicago Riverwalk in remembrance was Barbara Decker-Wacholz. She is the granddaughter of Eastland disaster survivor Borghild Aanstad Decker-Carlson who was just 13-years-old when the ship rolled on its side, trapping her and other family members in a middle compartment.
“They clung on to whatever they could find, floating in the water, holding on to the sides. Luckily, my grandmother had learned how to swim when she was a young girl,” Decker-Wacholz said.
After several hours, the family was pulled to safety through a porthole. Borghild would live a long life, raising a family of her own. At the age of 75, she married a man named Ernie Carlson.
“They had crushes on each other when they were young, and he was the one who taught her how to swim, up at their cabin on the lake in Wisconsin…She always attributed her survival to Ernie,” said Decker-Wacholz.
Valerie Bower is a first generation descendant of both victims and survivors of the Eastland disaster. Her grandmother was on board and pregnant with her mother in 1915 when the SS Eastland capsized. Her grandfather, a Swedish sailor and also aboard, was able to swim his wife to safety.
“My great-grandmother, two of my great-uncles and the fiancé all perished,” Bower said.
The men in Bower’s family were employees of Western Electric. A company picnic drew around 7,000 people, workers and their families, to the Chicago River, intending to board 5 passenger ships headed to Michigan City for the day.
Bower grew up hearing first hand accounts of the events that unfolded.
“When the bodies of my great uncles were brought home, their knuckles were all abraded from, more than likely, pounding on the side of the ship, trying to get people’s attention,” Bower said.
The yearly memorial ceremony which occurs at the exact spot of the disaster is organized by the Eastland Disaster Historical Society. EDHS organizers say that they are surprised to find that relatively few people are actually aware of the Eastland Disaster.
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